Meet the Staff

Lynn WilliamsDirector
Lynn Williams directs the Museum’s programs for professionals and student leaders. After joining the Museum’s staff in 1994, she launched the Bringing the Lessons Home Program to introduce local high school students and their communities to Holocaust history. In 1999, she directed the development and launch of the Museum’s Law Enforcement and Society Program, which has provided leadership training to more than 80,000 law enforcement officers and served as the model for the creation of the Museum’s other programs for professionals. The recipient of the Janusz Korczak Teacher of the Year Award for Holocaust Education and the US Department of Energy’s Holocaust Commemoration Award, she has presented at conferences throughout the United States and in China, Croatia, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

William F. Meinecke, Jr., PhDHistorian
Dr. William Meinecke is a historian for the Museum’s leadership development programs and is the author of Nazi Ideology and the Holocaust, published by the Museum in 2007. He joined the Museum’s staff in 1992 to help create the Historical Atlas of the Holocaust and a multimedia learning site for students. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, he also attended the Universities of Bonn and Berlin in Germany and received an MA and a PhD in history from the University of Maryland at College Park. His dissertation is titled “Conflicting Loyalties: The Supreme Court in Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–1945.”

Ann Millin, PhDHistorian
Dr. Ann Millin is a historian for the Museum’s leadership development programs and translator of Götz Aly’s The Brief Life of Marion Samuel, 1931–1943. At the Museum she has served as special assistant to the director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, coordinator for the Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance, and historian for the Photo Archives. The recipient of a PhD in Jewish history from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC–JIR), she has been awarded fellowships by the University of Göttingen and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has taught at HUC-JIR, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Kentucky at Lexington. Her scholarly research focuses on the history of Jewish social welfare work in Germany and Austria and Jewish forced emigration from Vienna.

Marcus AppelbaumDirector
Marcus Appelbaum directs the Museum’s Law, Justice, and Society Initiatives branch, which has served over 120,000 law enforcement and judiciary professionals from around the country. Marcus develops resources and training models, expands outreach, and represents the Museum in both national and international settings. Inspired by his grandmother who survived the Holocaust, Marcus began working at the Museum as a high school intern. From there, Marcus served as a docent and collected survivor testimony. He received a BA in history from The George Washington University and an MS in museum management from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. In 2016, the DC Police Department honored him with the Chief of Police Special Award for his partnership in crime reduction through enhancing community partnerships.

Sarah CampbellProgram Coordinator
Sarah Campbell is a program coordinator for the Museum’s Law, Justice, and Society Initiatives, facilitating leadership training for law enforcement officers, judges, and attorneys. Previously she worked as a Museum visitor services representative and has contributed to several institution-wide projects, including evaluations, outreach, and planning. Prior to coming to the Museum, she worked at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. She received a BA in film studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an MA in museum studies from The George Washington University.

Ann O'RourkeProgram Coordinator
Ann O’Rourke is a program coordinator for the Museum’s Law, Justice and Society Initiatives, facilitating leadership programs for law enforcement officers and members of the judiciary, and developing program resources, including translations of historical legal documents and a banner exhibition on the Holocaust used in off-site judicial programs. Previously she worked in the Museum’s Division of the Senior Historian, helping develop content for Museum programming, serving as a docent, and responding to public inquiries about Holocaust history. She received a BA in history and theology from the University of Notre Dame and spent a year on a Fulbright scholarship to the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria, where she completed a diploma (a one-year post-graduate program) in international studies. Ann also holds an MA in Democracy and Governance from Georgetown University.

Jesse Nickelson, EdDDirector
Dr. Jesse Nickelson is director of the Museum’s Youth and Community Initiatives. He first became involved with the Museum in 1996 as a high school teacher in DC public schools, working for more than 15 years to recruit students for the Bringing the Lessons Home Program and teachers interested in educating their students more deeply about the Holocaust. He received a EdD in educational leadership and organizational management from the University of Pennsylvania, where his research explored the process of civic identity development in youth.

Rebecca DupasCoordinator
Rebecca Dupas is a coordinator for the Museum’s Youth and Community Initiatives. After teaching in the public school system for seven years, she joined the Museum’s staff in 2012, engaging young people in the history of the Holocaust through the Bringing the Lessons Home Program—the same Museum program she participated in as a high school senior. She received a BA from Towson University and an MA in curriculum and instruction from Capella University.

James FlemingProgram Coordinator
James Fleming helps coordinate both the Museum’s Bringing the Lessons Home Program and Stephen Tyrone Johns Summer Youth Leadership Program and leads the annual training of Permanent Exhibition tour guides. A native of Washington, DC, he first visited the Museum as a senior at Howard Dilworth Woodson Senior High School, soon becoming a Bringing the Lessons Home ambassador and returning each summer during college to volunteer at the Museum. After graduating from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 2002, he came to work full-time for the Museum, coordinating the program that changed his life.

Russell GarnettProgram Coordinator
Russell Garnett helps coordinate the Bringing the Lessons Home Program and the National Summer Youth Leadership Seminar. He is currently working on a model using Adobe Connect to provide orientation for school groups outside the greater Washington, DC–area prior to their visit to the Museum.

Jennifer CiardelliDirector
Jennifer Ciardelli is the Director of the Civic and Defense Initiatives, where she directs programming and resource creation for military and government professionals. In this context, examining how the Holocaust occurred prompts learning about leadership and genocide prevention. Jennifer serves on the United States delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) where she is the 2017 chair for the Education Working Group. Previous work experiences included teaching high school as well as graduate education workshops on the Holocaust and genocide studies, European history, critical thinking, teaching about controversial issues, and curriculum design. Jennifer holds degrees in History and English from the University of Vermont and a Master's degree in Education from Saint Michael's College.

Amanda Rooney StierliProgram Coordinator
Amanda Rooney Stierli is program coordinator for the Museum’s Civic and Defense Initiatives, where she helps conduct historical research to support program development and coordinates programs for military and government officials. Previously she worked for the Museum on teacher education and special programs, traveling exhibitions, and the Center for the Prevention of Genocide. She received a BA in history with a minor in sociology from Thiel College in 2007 and two MAs, in history and in Russian and East European studies, from Florida State University in 2010.

Warren MarcusEducation Specialist
Warren Marcus is an education specialist for the Museum’s Civic and Defense Initiatives, where he works with officers-in-training and active-duty officers in the US and foreign militaries. Formerly he was the director of the Museum’s teacher workshops and conferences for ten years; his online workshop is visited by thousands of learners each month. Prior to the Museum, he taught middle and high school for 17 years, serving in a variety of administrative roles, including two departmental chair positions. He was a national finalist for social studies teacher of the year in 1992 in the Discovery Channel Salutes the American Teacher Awards program. He is a graduate of Brown University and received a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.